A few weeks ago, LA's KCRW set the gold standard for radio station apps: a streaming client with access to a huge back catalog of on-demand station content. Public Radio Player 2.0 does the same thing—for everyone.

All those apps at WWDC were pretty cool, right? Of course, they'll be a lot cooler when they…
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Since the start, Public Radio Player has listed a sizable number of NPR stations across the country, all of which are listenable via live streaming. Given the countless other radio app available for the iPhone, the only real advantage to using version 1.0 was that, if you spent the time to look, you could find just about any NPR or PRI show you wanted playing somewhere.

Version 2.0 provides comprehensive station schedules to make program-hunting easier, but more importantly, provides access to the often generous back catalogs from various stations, meaning that you can get any public radio programming you want on demand, for free. It's a fairly incredible deal for NPR addicts, who'll now be able to fine-tune their daily feed of dulcet, strangely androgynous news and lifestyle coverage to perfection. [Ars]